Most of Australia's major banks are just beginning massive IT projects which will see them refresh their core banking systems. But as HSBC's Australian CIO Brenton Hush tells ZDNet.com.au, the global bank's local operation is already ahead.
Most of Australia's major banks are just beginning massive IT projects which will see them refresh their core banking systems. But as HSBC's Australian CIO Brenton Hush tells ZDNet.com.au, the global bank's local operation is already ahead.
Brenton Hush
HSBC's core banking refresh project was completed in May this year, Hush says, after work that took the better part of 24 months. Admittedly, HSBC's smaller Australian presence compared to titans such as the Commonwealth Bank gave the project
a shorter timeline, but, according to Hush, it was made easier by
the bank's so-called ever-greening of its technology.
"I'm under heavy pressure to ever-green our technology, so you
don't end up with 10- to 15-year-old servers," he says. "It's about healthy
investment. There's a tipping point between over-investment and
under-investment, [with the latter] meaning you would create
instability in the business."
Compared to larger rivals, HSBC has a rigorous process for keeping core tech fresh. "Our last upgrade was just seven years ago, which ... is fairly recent," he
says. "Having said that, it was still a fairly high risk and complex
project."
CommBank CIO
Michael Harte in April admitted many of its
back-end systems dated back to the 1960s, which had hampered the bank's ability to release new banking products.
HSBC Australia also approached the project very differently to
major local banks, using low-cost portions of its 30,000
global internal IT staff, as well as its global US$6 billion
technology budget.
"Fifty per cent of my development resources are offshore, which
means HSBC staff in low cost centres like India and China,
particularly in China which was heavily involved in this project,"
says Hush.
The strategy is also different in nature to similar initiatives within HSBC's larger local rivals.
Our last upgrade was just seven years ago, which ... is fairly recent
HSBC CIO Brenton Hush
Hush describes the project's schedule as "top down", with the
Australian and New Zealand components earmarked to be completed in
parallel with the bank's Brunei operations. The National Australia Bank is dipping its toe into the water with its upgrade, rolling out Oracle software to a small portion of its operation before taking it to the mainstream bank.
HSBC has also maintained a proprietary core banking platform,
meaning it had developed its own systems: a choice both CommBank and NAB have avoided.
However, the ultimate goal is similar amongst banks that have
earmarked core systems for a refresh, with each hoping to release
new products faster in the future.
HSBC Australia's refresh had been aimed at standardising the
bank's services globally, as it gears up for the release of a
special product for its premier customers, which will allow them to
move finances around the world with greater ease than is currently
possible.
"The core system upgrade essentially gives us the foundation to
start taking out these global products. Which is a single product
offering globally such as a single credit card system, and a single
ATM network: all of those vanilla offerings," says Hush.
"We have got a proposition change coming with our premier
customers. That's one where our Web platform is providing
functionality across the globe for our premier customers that no
other competitor in the market can do."
